About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

6 Comments

What was said on the BBC and SKY was a hell of a lot worse than that, trust me. The sword was out and everyone was swinging it.

Personally i think Capello has to take a lot of the Blame. Everyone is saying oh it’s England, they are playing long ball, they can’t pass. I want to say hold a minute, there is an italian in charge here, no one is telling to him to play Heskey and say pump the ball up to Heskey and use him as a target man. Everyone and i mean everyone in England, wanted Rooney to play up front on his own and Gerrard and Lampard to play behind him. Fabio is in charge, he picks that player (Heskey) and he tells the other players to use that tactic.
People need to step back and take a look at who is in charge here, who is picking the 11 players that walk onto the pitch and who is saying kick that long ball upto Heskey and play off him.
This man has not taken England forward, he has taken them backwards, despite everyone slagging them off we are talking about a team that got to the World Cup QF’s in 2002 and 2006

Fabio’s tactics and his formations during this comp were pathetic, we got over-run in midfield by his use of the 4-4-2 and when we needed goals yesterday, he brings on Heskey, someone who is about as likely to score as that donkey Altidore.
Pathetic, how this man has won titles in Italy and Spain is beyond me.

Maybe but who says he has to play 4-4-2 which no one in England plays and who says he needs to pick Heskey when the guy can’t even get in his club side. Those are his choices, not Englands and he needs to take responsibility for them

Your right, but despite stopping the long ball and England keeping possession better, it was still 4-4-2 and therefore we still lost out in the midfield.
Against a very good German midfield, you can’t afford to do that. I don’t think this german team is great. We scored one and should have had two. Lampard hit the crossbar, milner had a good chance defoe should have done better with one oppotunity, Gerrard should have scored apart from a very good save from there keeper and Lampard had a very good chance 3 yards out that was also stopped well by their keeper.
I was actually shocked when i saw the stats to find England with more possession and more shots on target than Germany.
This highlights to me that Germany who had 6 shots on target, scoring 4, took their chances well but still are a long way off winning this world .
It also highlights the fact that the goal that never was could have changed what happened. Germany hit two late counter attack goals which were scored mainly because England were pushing players forward searching for a goal to level the match up. They would not have needed to do this if they had gone in at half time 2-2 which is what should have happened.